EPN Automotive Electronics Blog

Control over F1 cars

When there are 50 people working at high speed on a strange looking, logo-adorned vehicle and one guy sitting low and dry who doesn't do much more than tapping a pedal with his big toe, this guy is the public hero and the whole thing is called Formula 1 racing. These days, even the big toe tapping isn't much of a challenge anymore, since there are so many sensors and actors at work.

IAA 2011: An extra eye on the road

One of the hottest among the hot topics at IAA 2011 - Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung - in Frankfurt is safety. Safety for driver and passengers but also for pedestrians and all the other traffic on the road.

Signal conditioning

Among the most used electronic components in modern cars are sensors. Since they are omnipresent, they came into focus for space saving. Most (analogue) sensing components can’t shrink much but the ‘back end’ like signal conditioning can.

Sensors against collisions

A big deal for Jenoptik, manufacturer of optical components: The East-Germany-based company just signed a long-term delivery contract with automotive supplier Magna and expands its production of sensors for the automotive industry.

Model truck

Inefficient driving techniques can increase carbon emissions and raise fuel consumption by as much as 10%. For a company with 20 trucks, each driven 120,000 kilometres a year, this translates to 200 tons

Sensitive for crash situations

More safety – less dead victims: Freescale Semiconductor expands its Xtrinsic sensing portfolio with “intelligent” radar technology. Using Silicon Germanium (SiGe) instead of Gallium Arsenid (GaAs), the 77 GHz chipset enables vehicles to sense potential crash situations, claims the company.

Prototyping Lambda Probe

As cars become increasingly environmentally friendly, engine and exhaust control electronics get more and more complex. One consequence is that today it’s more or less impossible even to change a spark plug on one’s own, another is the pure intricacy of the design and development process.

TriCore on the road

We’ve all heard about the 60, 80 or 100 microcontrollers in todays or tomorrows cars, controlling ignition timing, displaying virtualized tachometers or illuminating the front-seat passenger’s ashtray. Since the assigned functions are so varied, those automobiles usually are a very diverse ecosystem for many different MCU families from a large number of different manufacturers.

Sensor manufacturer chairs DASH7 AWG

The newly formed automotive working group within the DASH7 Alliance is co-chaired by the Belgian semiconductor company Melexis. The company’s mission as co-chair will be to craft a multi-year roadmap for bringing DASH7 into a variety of automotive applications and markets.

Steer and turn

Steering-angle sensors measure the steering wheel's actual position, the value which an increasing number of systems use to determine the direction the driver wants the vehicle to take. Bosch’s new sensor LWS6 measures relatively over an unlimited measuring range. Its typical signal resolution is 1.5°.